We lunged, and neither sprinted out of the fear that she might die.

Rain and smoke blurred into streaks of motion; every sound turned sharp, I can taste the hiss of fire, visualize the scrape of boots, the metal song of my scythe cleaving through the air.

For a split second, I consider using my instant-kill exploit… Yet, for such a crowded environment, it was unlikely I'd attempt such ridiculous tricks.

I swung first with a downward strike, Lady_Valerie's left elbow shot up to meet the flat of my blade with a sharp clang that reverberated through the entire haft that weakens my grip. The impact knocked my scythe's edge off course even when I tried holding it steady.

The split second of fear I expressed throug my brows was enough for her to twist her hips following the momentum of the elbow, giving way for her right fist came flying for my face.

This move I've seen before, so I flipped the weapon in my grip, slamming the wooden butt-end into her knuckles before the punch connected. She microdiverged the trajectory to still hit my forehead, and the residual impact was enough to still rattle my skull, sounding a hollow thunk inside my head, but there was no damage dealt.

She attempted to grab me with her left fist while retracting the punching right arm, but she was in perfect range for my scythe to cut diagonally up from her thighs, she must've noticed this, and raised her foot to try and stomp on my scythe, yet she missed when I distracted her with another sudden movement of my shoulders… Something that she really took notice on.

Knowing she couldn't stop my arch, she took a dash backward, and I quickly followed.

I swung my scythe horizontally this time, from right to left; what felt naturally to me, its white edge whistling through the smoke so beautifully. And she simply sidestepped me; the blade split the air where her ribs should've been, the impact shaking the floorboards as it buried into the wall instead.

I, instinctively, glanced towards the entrance, and sure enough, the two guys were there.

My distraction was my downfall.

Her elbow struck me square in the ribs. I gasped and stumbled backward, the breath ripped from my lungs.

She chased, and that was I knew she was already in her rhythm… See, her dueling fighting style was basically like this.

She would focus on parry and dodging for the first few seconds of combat, and soon enough, she'll find a way to attack back due to the opponent's lack of VR experience compared to us Top 50… Then, when the opponent got dazed and or have fear installed in them, she will start doing combos of attack that meant to pressure the other party into defensing.

Her speed wasn't that significant, so I could still block or dodge most of it; perks of her being a tanky class, yet, she was still naturally fast enough that trying to counterattack meant bad stuff.

And when her combo fails, she would repeat the rhythm.

I barely deflected the next flew blows, turning the shaft of my scythe into a barrier between her and my body, since she wasn't the type of person that attacked with both fist on the same second, this was doable, yet I can feel my arms getting heavier by each impact I received.

Now I was in the "pressure combo" part.

I twisted, ducked, redirected, and blocked, everything possible, trying to look for an opening, yet… All failed.

To think that she was doing all of this while still keeping a hood on, I reckon it was to maintain her anomity, yet limiting her vision and motions.

Soon enough, my irregular weapon of choice must've caught her lacking, because her skin caught the tip of my blade, and a single streak of red bloomed along her forearm.

She then crouched low and sprang upward, I simply used my scythe to intercept her midair, and she came prepared when she held onto the tip of the shaft, and used it as a pedestal of sorts (reminding me of how Mei used her knees during the livestreams), and with some ridiculous acrobatics moves, she spun herself in the air right behind me.

A nape kick connected, then when she landed, I turned to receive another hit on the side of my heart, then one more under my jaw that sent stars exploding in my vision.

I stumbled forward, trying to swing again, but my grip slipped on the haft, sweat and blood mixed, blinding me.

"Stay down." she said, blocking a desperate thrust I made toward her chest.

"I need to come to Hailie's aid…" I growled, twisting the scythe in my grip, "You killed her once, you bastard."

I swung my scythe upward while my mind visualize the tip coming straight into her vagina for some weird, autistic reason, yet, she sidestepped and caught it with her elbow again to approach punching distance, that cursed elbow, I never realized that she'd been practicing that ever since we last met.

A punch came for my temple.

At the last second, I managed to twist my blade around, using the wooden handle to slowed her arm while the blade scraped against her knees.

Still, the blow's force spun me half around, my head ringing as I dashed twice backwards, almost getting hit by a stray arrow of the crazy fight in the bar.

"This is… Not as fun as I remembered." She commented.

"Having false expectations again, ya god damn filthy thrill seeker?" I replied.

Then I charged.

The scythe arced in a crescent, and she barely ducked under it, I figured she would try to gut-punch me or jaw-punch me, so, I did the natural thing, and just took the initiative to take a step forward and knee the fucker in the face.

It worked, because I felt contact, and for a second, I thought I had her cornered.

I looked down to see her crouching lower without minding my knee, palms flat on the floor, and launched herself upward again, straight through the narrow space between my weapon and my chest.

Her shoulder rammed into me.

The impact sent us both crashing into a shattered bar counter, splintered wood exploding around us.

"FUCK," I yelled.

My blood was boiling, because I knew for a fact that in a fair fight, I couldn't think of anyone who would be able to take her down… Except for maybe DarkHeavens, but no one had seen him in a while, and they never interacted.

The infamous Lady_Valerie, a fighter so strong that she had to nerfed herself by playing some fucking ridiculous hybrid class aka Paladin with strength build.

"Three times." She said.

"?" I replied.

"I won three times during the Early Access, and you won once… That's four times we met, and you always resort to toy with environmental circumstances at the end, you led me to the curse of the Frosted Palace and slow me down… Have you no honor."

She gave me a moment of breather, as she was also getting restless with tire.

I twirled the scythe around my body as I spoke.

"Let's skip the history lesson, yah?" I said, teeth gritted. "My duty is to get to the barrier nexus, and upon reactivating it, you fuckers will fry. In fact, if your duty's solely to be here and stop me, then I think I have to beat your ass and get up there as soon as possible."

"So that's the winning conditions," Her grin widened, of course only caring about the fight. "You really think you'll make it to that barrier nexus?"

"Try and stop me."

We charged again.

Her bare fists versus my steel.

I swung high for her to duck. I swept low and she vaulted over it, acrobatically she twisted midair, and slammed a heel kick into my shoulder that sent me staggering.

Her feet didn't even touch the round as her kneess bent, already driving another punch into my ribs.

I gasped, forcing my scythe between us just in time to parry her next blow.

I thrust forward desperately as the blade pierced her forearm with a shallow wound, barely a scratch but still dealing damage. But, to my utter horror, she grabbed the embedded scythe and yanked it out my hands; I was forced to let it go in order not to be send flying. And it did, flying across the room.

My eyes followed, and I tried blocking it with my barefist, but her next punch sent me to the floor on my back.

My vision was spinning, my body trembling from lost HP and adrenaline. I coughed out blood as my hands were on the floor

"God damn… this feels like that one trope about speed versus strength now… Fucking- bruiser against a juggernaut."

Her only answer was a scoff.

"You're more like a juggernaut than I am." She commented, "You took hits more than you can endure."

"That's called being dumb and slow." I added.

I tried to stand, but my legs gave out. The floor tilted, and my head throbbed with white noise as I hit my back against the splintered planks, unable to move.

She exhaled through her nose, stepping forward with that same calm demeanor, done with the fight.

"My order were to disable you from the fight, so please excuse me."

My vision blurred as I saw her body leaving it; Lady_Valerie has leapt, twisting midair for a full-weight stomp aimed straight at my chest.

Time slowed.

I saw the shadow fall over me, the glint of rain on her boots, the muscle flex of her thigh as she descended.

And I moved.

With my left foot, I hooked a stool lying beside me, and raised my thighs it up into the air. I twisted my hips, letting momentum spin my whole body, and kicked, I kicked hard with all my might right into her incoming leg.

CRACK.

She gasped, the force knocking her off-balance mid-descent as here body tilted sideways.

She hit the ground shoulder-first, rolling awkwardly with a curse as the stool splintered lodged into her calves, and knees..

I rolled away, clutching my side, heart hammering.

"Environmental circumstances you say? Bitch, you just describe real life, this isn't a fucking hexagon or Rome!"

I wiped blood from my lips and glared at her from behind my hair.

"In the real world…" I spun the splintered stool leg in my hand like a short short, grinning through the pain. "Everything is part of the fight, including the fact that the ground's been doused with alcohol, and can be set ablazed any minute."

And for the briefest, insane moment; I smiled.

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